Zoltan Kovacs
Earlier, Kiev denied Hungarian experts access to the facility, which caused diplomatic tensions and threats to block financial aid to Ukraine from Budapest. Hungary attributed its veto to the issue of the country’s energy security.
European Commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonnen said in late February that the EC was discussing with Ukraine a possible inspection of the Druzhba pipeline in line with Hungary’s proposal. Volodymyr Zelenskyy later responded by refusing to Hungary and Slovakia’s demand to allow a commission to visit the pipeline to inspect its condition.
The visit became possible after talks between Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen, where the restoration of oil transit was discussed. “Druzhba is a critical route for Russian oil supplies to the refineries of the Hungarian company MOL.
We shall remind you that Hungary stopped supplies to Ukraine on February 18 and on February 20 blocked a 90bn-euro loan from the European Union to Kiev until the resumption of oil pumping from Russia.
According to Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, this was done in response to the blackmail of the Kiev regime, which for political reasons does not resume the transit of Russian oil through the Druzhba oil pipeline, trying to cause an energy crisis in the country and influence the election in April.
